Welcome to Part Three of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to create an automated web traffic generating machine using the WordPress CMS.
In Part 1 of this series, we explained why using an expertly configured WordPress website or blog is the key to automating traffic to your website …
(With an expertly configured WordPress website or blog, all you have to do is publish web content on a regular basis to automatically generate web traffic!)
In Part 2, we looked at the setup phase of the blueprint. We helped you understand the best way to get started if you don’t have a website yet, how to set things up if you already have a site, and what to do if your existing website has been built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you how to set up a WordPress website on your domain)
In this article, we will discuss the configuration phase of the traffic automation process. You will understand what makes an expertly configured site different than a professionally configured site, and how much work needs to be done to make sure that when everything is set up and configured, web traffic will automatically start flowing when you add content to your website.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration
Being able to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as the greatest challenge they face online. Businesses are becoming so much more competitive on a global scale and are looking for any opportunity they can to improve their performance and results online.
Having the ability to automatically generate traffic on demand can provide website owners with a tremendous advantage. For businesses, having an expertly configured website gives WordPress users a flying start from the moment their site is launched.
The Difference Is In The Configuration
There is a difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by a website-building expert but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here’s a simple way to describe the key difference:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a web presence with an automated online business marketing system!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence and an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only are more steps needed to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, but also a special kind of expert knowledge.
To illustrate this point here is a story.
A Semi-True Story …
All is going just fine in the gizmo-making factory when things grind to a sudden halt.
As no one can figure out what’s happened, the manager decides to call in an expert.
The expert arrives shortly after being summoned and heads directly towards the control box. After staring silently at the schematics for less than 2 minutes or so, the expert then takes out a little hammer and makes a very gentle tap about one cm from the top-right edge of the unit.
Immediately, everything inside the plant begins to work as before.
The floor manager is relieved as he thanks the expert, who leaves as quickly as he had arrived.
A few days later, the manager receives an invoice for the amount of $5,000.
Outraged and furious, the factory manager picks up the phone and dials the expert. Why were they charged such an exorbitant fee for so little time delivering a minimal amount of work? He then requests an itemized invoice and hangs up.
The next day, an invoice arrives in the manager’s intray. Upon opening it, this is what he sees:
The number one challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive new traffic to their sites.
How much money did the widget factory stand to lose when the machines ground to a halt and no one in the business had the expertise required to fix it? Did the expert not have every right to demand fair compensation for years spent building up the knowledge and expertise that allowed him to assess and avert a very serious crisis?
Similarly, if you could have your blog configured so all you ever had to do is publish content to it and search engines, social media and dozens of other web properties would be immediately notified, how much time and money would you save?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your site?)
Although many experts often make difficult solutions look simple, it rarely is that simple or easy.
Knowing how to expertly configure a WordPress site requires more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few settings. It also involves knowing where to tap! This includes knowing things like:
- Which plugins need to be installed to get various functionalities on your site.
- Which 3rd-party accounts you need to set up and activate to achieve certain results
- Which internal and external settings need to be configured in order to make sure things work as envisioned, etc.
(Generating traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this part of the traffic automation system may not seem technically challenging, it can be quite involved and complicated. This is because it’s not as easy as installing a solution, configuring some settings in your admin area or clicking a button … it’s all this and much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a complex process that involves your server, your WordPress site, and various third-party sites and services …
(The configuration phase involves more than just configuring a few WordPress settings)
If we try to flowchart the configuration process, it would look like this …
(A simplified flowchart of all the steps involved in the configuration phase)
Let’s take a look at these steps.
Your Server – Configuration
We’re not talking about the process of configuring your web hosting account for site installation purposes (this is normally done during the Setup phase). What we are talking about, is tweaking settings and options in your server specifically for handling all web traffic …
(During the configuration phase, your server settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is positive traffic. Some of the traffic you will attract will be unwelcome traffic like spam, malicious threats, brute-force bot attacks, etc.
This aspect of the configuration process, therefore, is about planning for good and unwelcome traffic and then adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This includes looking at things like configuring spam protection and securing server files, to configuring domain and email forwarding, setting up htaccess and error page redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your control panel settings for handling things like email forwarding, page errors, etc?)
After checking your server settings and configuring these, the next step is to configure a number of external sites.
Configuring External Sites
The basic idea of adding external sites is that all content is posted to one central location (your site) and from there, it then gets automatically distributed to other parts of your traffic generation system, or notify traffic-related web properties and applications.
Once you add these external platforms to your setup, content with links pointing back to your website will get automatically published on these platforms, indexed by search engines and distributed to social networks, even to visitors attracted to the platform itself. Your site receives additional exposure online, helping your business tap into a whole new audience and traffic source.
Some external sites and online solutions will need to have accounts set up before configuring your settings to help save time and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, here are just some of the accounts you will need to have set up before configuring your site:
Google Webmasters
(Google Search Console – create a Google-friendly website)
Google Webmasters lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of essential data, tools, and diagnostic reports about their website.
After setting up your Google Search Console account, use the account information with traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO (see further below) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s results, SEO, user engagement, marketing campaigns, and more, by tracking all user behaviour, pages visited, keywords searched for, search engine referrers, etc.
After setting up your up your Google Analytics account and site details has been entered, visitor tracking data can be integrated with WordPress via a simple plugin used with other applications.
Bing Webmaster Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Webmaster Tools. After setting up your Bing Webmaster Tools account and entering site details, this information can be used to integrate and automate web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO) and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As discussed in Part 2, WordPress provides users with a hosted and a self-hosted option. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress platform if you are planning to grow a professional online presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful features, which can be accessed by a number of WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account with WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate this into your automated traffic system in the next installment of this series.
Social Media And Social Bookmarking
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and drive new traffic to your site)
You will need to set up your various social accounts in order to integrate these with your traffic generation system.
Once you have set up and configured everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media and social bookmarking accounts and attract new traffic to your site.
You should set up profiles with all the popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.
There are many social bookmarking sites you can set up accounts with. You don’t need to create accounts with all of them, just select those that will work with your setup and/or content sharing tools (we cover some of these tools in more detail during the Automation phase).
(You can syndicate your content to loads of social bookmarking sites. Image: ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, RSS Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of new online web platforms and RSS aggregators that can act as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free access levels, and some offer a range of pricing plans.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add your WordPress site feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your RSS feeds and social profiles. Your content is displayed in a Pinterest-like format and users can follow your page.
There are various solutions that can be incorporated into your web traffic blueprint. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to explore some of these and discuss a strategy to suit your needs.
Once you have configured your web server and set up accounts with external services, it’s time to configure your site.
WordPress Traffic Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that its global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Global Settings – WordPress
The WordPress administration area contains a Settings section that allows you to modify your site’s global settings …
(WordPress menu – Settings)
General Settings
Sections like Site Title and Tagline affect traffic by influencing your site’s SEO, search listings, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings)
Writing Settings
The Writing Settings section contains one of the most important and frequently overlooked automated traffic notification systems available to WordPress site owners …
(Global Settings – Writing Settings)
As described below the Update Services section title,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have specifically chosen to discourage search engines from indexing your site – see next section, then your site will automatically notify the update services entered into the Update Services field
With an ‘out of the box’ WordPress installation, this section displays only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature)
WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically …
(WordPress lets you notify dozens of update services automatically!)
Download A Comprehensive List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site!
Click the link below to download a comprehensive list of reliable and authoritative ping services for your WordPress site or blog:
Download A List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site
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Note: If you need help setting up the list of ping services on your site, we recommend using a professional web services provider. You can find professional WordPress service providers in our WordPress Services Directory.
Reading Settings
This section affects how your content gets seen by readers when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings in this section can influence web traffic. For example, your choice to display the full content vs a summary of your post, affects how your content appears in RSS feeds and RSS email campaigns, and could play a part in someone’s decision to explore your content further, and whether or not they will visit your blog to view the rest of the content from a partial feed, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
As far as your traffic system is concerned, however, the main setting in this section is whether the Search Engine Visibility check box is enabled or not.
Typically, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows your site to ping the update services list when new posts are published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, do not check this box …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion Settings
Although discussion settings are mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to sites linked to from your posts, and to allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks). This can work for you, but it can also drive bad traffic in the form of SPAM comments …
(Settings Menu – Discussion Settings)
Permalink Settings
Permalinks enable WordPress to publish posts with SEO-friendly URLs …
(Global Settings – Permalinks)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your site’s SEO-friendly URLs …
(Configuring search-friendly URLS)
We have written a detailed tutorial about using permalinks here: Using Permalinks To Improve Your WordPress SEO
Plugin Settings
WordPress provides users with thousands of plugins that can add just about every type of functionality imaginable to your website, including plugins that add traffic generation capabilities.
Here are examples of plugin categories and plugins that affect traffic generation
WordPress Security Plugins – Blog Defender
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No site is immune from being attacked.
(WordPress Security Plugins help prevent bad traffic from harming your web presence)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your website invisible to bots and hackers.
More info:
SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your web pages …
(WP Plugin – Yoast SEO)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (formerly known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your website’s SEO. Once properly configured, this plugin not only makes your site easier for search engines like Google to find, crawl and index, it also lets you specify how to display your content in Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and GooglePlus.
Social Plugins
Allowing your visitors to share your content online can help boost traffic to your site, especially if your site provides content that adds value to readers.
(You can easily add social sharing features to your website using free or inexpensive WordPress plugins)
There are loads of free or inexpensive social sharing plugins available for WordPress users.
Many social share plugins allow you to choose which social sites your content can be shared to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default notifications, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of followers), etc. Some social share plugins even allow you to ‘lock’ content or downloads which visitors can unlock by sharing your page.
Theme Settings
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help improve your site’s traffic generation capabilities.
For example, as well as options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your website, many themes also give you built-in options for improving search optimization and site linking structure for better indexing, add analytics code, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in traffic optimization features)
With many quality themes, adding social sharing buttons and features to your content is as easy as selecting the option to enable this functions …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in social sharing features that can be easily turned on with the click of a button)
Other Configuration Aspects For WordPress
Last (but by no means least) in the configuration process, are the areas that need to be set up outside of the global settings.
This includes:
Compliance Web Pages
Once again, when preparing your website for a growth in traffic, it’s important to plan not only for how to deal with good and unwelcome traffic but also for all the situations that can cause serious damage to your business when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you make money online, it’s important that your site is found to comply with regulatory agencies.
(Is Your Site Compliant?)
If you need help adding compliance pages to WordPress, go here:
Post Tags & Post Categories
Post tags & post categories help search engines index your web pages, which improves traffic.
(Post categories help search engines index your web pages, which helps to increase traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, your site’s post tags and categories should be discussed and set up during the Website Planning Stage.
When considering ways to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post categories and tags have been correctly set up to deliver optimal results.
Add A Site Map
A site map that lists all of your site’s pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool for users, it can also help external tools discover more of your site’s content …
(Site Map – great for site visitors and beneficial for traffic too!)
It’s important to note that an HTML site map and an XML sitemap are not the same things. HTML site maps are web pages that provide users with a an understandable map of how your content is structured, whereas XML sitemaps are mostly filled with code that only search engine bots can interpret. Although Google can index your site just using an XML sitemap (which plugins like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
Configure Your Site’s 404 Page
When online users type in the wrong URL into their browser or click on links pointing to an incorrect destination on your site, they are greeted with a 404 page …
(A 404 Error Page)
A 404 Not Found error page can be configured to redirect confused visitors to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 page allows you to recover traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up in your server, there are several WordPress plugins that allow you to easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress Traffic System: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once your WordPress site has been expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do to bring more web traffic is add web content on a regular basis.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of a number of different components and web properties …
(WordPress Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Checklist)
The knowledge and expertise involved in expertly configuring a WordPress site typically takes some website developers months to learn.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as can be automated. This step is addressed in the next section of our WordPress Traffic System series.
This is the end of Part 3
To continue reading, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive series of tutorials designed to help you learn how to grow your business using a WordPress-powered website or blog and proven web marketing strategies.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)
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